Mostly cheerful, sometimes snarky commentary on life science research and its broader impacts

Resolutions revised January 29, 2014

For the past year or so, maybe more, I have been admonishing myself nearly every day for waking up too late (my perceived ideal wake up time being 6-7am), even though I manage to get to work at a reasonable time (~9am) most days, barring exceptional circumstances, or if I have to come in early for a big experiment. My brain has internalized the dogma of “productive people wake up early so in order to be productive I must do the same”, whereas my body has been utterly non-compliant.

I used to be an early morning person throughout my teenage and early adult years, but apparently am really not anymore. Whatever amount of sleep I get, I find that waking up an hour early reduces my productivity by an amount >> 1h if I have to do any creative or intellectual work that day. I feel irritable and sleep-deprived even if I got enough sleep (8h or more). There is just no benefit to doing this on an elective basis.

So, instead of starting every day with a sense of failure, I am officially striking Resolution #6 (get to work by 8am every day) from my list, given that it only succeeded in making me feel miserable, while negatively impacting my productivity on the rare days when it was adhered to. Making decent progress on the other resolutions, though, except #9 (piano) and #5 (pool/gym). Really struggling with the latter- it’s difficult to work out when you have no energy, but think I would have lots more energy if I got more (high-intensity) exercise. If anyone has suggestions on breaking this cycle, I’d love to hear them!